Chris Freund, Rockwood School District’s director of facilities, will retire after more than 30 years with the district.
Freund, 50 of Pacific grew up in Eureka, attended Geggie Elementary School and Eureka Junior High School (replaced by LaSalle Springs Middle School in 1993) and graduated from Eureka High School in 1992.
“I never left Rockwood,” Freund said. “I would have never dreamed that 30 years later I would be retiring from here, let alone as the director of facilities, but that’s how things worked out. I still have moments when I’m driving down the road, and I’m asking myself, ‘Am I doing the right thing, and who am I going to be without Rockwood?’ You wake up every day for 30 years, and this is what you know, but I am excited for whatever lies ahead.”
Freund’s last day with the district will be June 30. He said it’s his goal to make the transition as smooth as possible for the more than 300 maintenance, grounds, custodial and other support staff he works with to keep the district running.
Superintendent Curtis Cain called Freund’s retirement bittersweet.
“He’s an amazing professional and has such detailed knowledge of the district,” Cain said. “In my first week on the job, I was able to meet with Chris for a departmental meeting and just that comprehensive knowledge – it was impressive then and, if I call him today, it’s still impressive. It’s been a pleasure working with him.”
Chief Communications Officer Mary LaPak said the Rockwood Board of Education will most likely select the next director of facilities at one of the February meetings, which are scheduled to be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Administrative Annex, 500 N. Central Ave., in Eureka.
Freund’s salary is $155,779.63.
Rockwood-made
Freund’s first paying job with the district was during the summer before he graduated high school, in 1991, when he worked in a temporary role painting classrooms. He worked the same summer painting job in 1992 before attending Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University).
“I played baseball at a high level in high school,” Freund said. “I was fortunate to have a Division I scholarship to play baseball at Southwest Missouri State, but unfortunately an injury kind of stopped that process, that’s where Rockwood came in. Everybody dreams of being a professional athlete and thinking that’s the plan, right? And when that didn’t happen, then I had to really regroup.”
Freund took a full-time position as a mowing and landscape technician in 1995, gradually working his way up in the grounds department to supervisor, then coordinator, and finally director of facilities in March 2013.
There are two parts to the director position, Freund said. One is the operations side, ensuring buildings are clean, equipment is maintained and work orders are completed. The other side is construction, making sure the district is forward-thinking with any new buildings in the works, along with additions and improvements to existing buildings.
Having a cohesive team and an understanding of the workload is crucial for both parts, Freund said.
“I think it was a huge benefit for me as I was moving up through the ranks because I tell people all the time that I’m not going to ask anybody to do something that I’ve not already done or that I’m not going to do right now,” he said. “That experience coming through has helped me really relate to our employees and it was a huge benefit having all that experience as I moved up to director.”
Freund said his son, Colton, graduated from Eureka High in 2022. His sister, Jennifer Sinn, teaches science at Crestview Middle School in Ellisville, and her children attend Rockwood schools.
“It’s special to me to watch them grow up and come through the (school) system and be a part of improvements that impacted them directly,” Freund said.
Director
On the construction side of the job, Freund said he’s proud of the work his department put in to building Eureka Elementary School, which was finished in 2019, and the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) building at Eureka High, which was finished in 2020.
The district paid for the new buildings with proceeds from a $95.5 million bond issue voters approved in April 2017.
“I really believe that we’re in a better place now with our employee group and the folks that support our buildings than we were when I started in 2013,” Freund said. “I tell them all the time they should be really proud of what we’ve accomplished since 2013.”
The Proposition 3 tax shift, which received overwhelming support from voters in November 2023, is “a huge game changer” for the facilities department, Freund said.
About $11.2 million in Prop 3 funds was allocated for the 2025 facilities budget, Freund said in an interview last year.
Freund said his department began planning for Prop 3 about 10 years ago, to execute the debt transition and establish a dedicated fund for building and equipment cycle maintenance. The district’s operating tax levy ceiling increased by 36 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in the tax year 2024 and will increase by an estimated additional 18 cents per $100 of assessed valuation the next year. The district’s debt service tax levy was reduced by the same amount – 36 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in 2024 and an additional 18 cents per $100 of assessed valuation in 2025.
“When you have 4 million square feet of buildings, you have to have a plan,” Freund said. “Asking the public to pass bond issues every couple of years is not the answer. When (Prop 3) passed that November, that was one of the proudest moments I’ve had. Now we know annually there’s going to be a good amount of money to address issues moving forward.”
As director, Freund said he was constantly presented with new challenges, some of which he could foresee years in advance and others which he had no foresight to. The floods of 2015 and 2017 tested the district, he said.
“The most challenging part is the unknown,” Freund said. “You know, I’ve been in Eureka since 1982 and quite honestly ’82 was the last time we saw anything remotely close to what we saw in 2015 and 2017. You’re always trying to plan with construction, with your people, but these are things that you just don’t know when you wake up in the morning, that this is going to happen.”
Cain said Freund is always prepared and “thinking around corners.”
“I have never encountered a facility challenge that Chris Freund wasn’t ready for,” he said.
Looking ahead
An avid fisherman, Freund said he has a few fishing trips lined up already once he retires.
He said it isn’t his intent to “just sit at home” during his retirement. He plans to stay involved with the district in some capacity but doesn’t know at what level.
Freund said he’s worked with countless principals and administrators and several superintendents over the years – all of whom have been a pleasure to work with.
“Just having good people around you makes it easy to succeed, easy to stay,” he said. “Rockwood has a great group of people from top to bottom.”